Despite the demand for and substantial efforts by others to provide a high fuel economy, low noxious emissions, high power engine at a reasonable cost, the various problems to be solved continue and the need for such an engine remains. My research has led me in the direction of providing multiple power cylinders fed by charge cylinders in which a rich air/fuel ratio is compressed for delivery to the power cylinders. The prior art shows that various inventors have suggested combinations of power and charge cylinders, for example: U.S. Pat. Nos. 789,047, 603,914, 954,577, 938,633, 1,248,250, 1,197,951, and 1,601,548.
Generally, however, the cited patents do not compress the mixture of the charge cylinder with the intent of providing additional power, but rather store the mixture and regulate its discharge into the power cylinders. U.S. Pat. No. 1,601,548 is an exception to this generalization and compresses a rich air/fuel mixture within the charge cylinder. However, the port to the power cylinder on the charge cylinder is continually open until ignition thereby permitting compression of both the charge cylinder and power cylinder gases at the same time. This results in a highly inefficient engine since additional fuel consumption would be necessary for injection of a rich air/fuel mixture into both power and charge cylinders and the rich air/fuel mixture would not be injected into a charge chamber to precharge the chamber where ignition would occur. Consequently, the charge cylinder of U.S. Pat. No. 1,601,548 is merely assisting the power piston in compressing the air/fuel mixture within the power cylinder.
Representative of charge chambers in the prior art are U.S. Pat. Nos. 1,998,785, 2,914,041, and 3,304,922. Each of these patents illustrate various methods for delivering and retaining a rich fuel mixture adjacent the ignition means. U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,304,922 and 2,914,041 use power piston compression for retaining the rich fuel mixture adjacent the ignition means. However, the rich fuel is injected downward into the combustion area and mixes with the lean fuel prior to the power piston reaching top dead center. In U.S. Pat. No. 1,998,785 the rich mixture is injected into a preliminary chamber substantially apart from the main combustion chamber which could produce retardation of the flame front. Moreover, neither chamber is a variable volume chamber for adjusting compression within the power cylinder.
The prior art also reveals various combinations of multiple pistons for varying the main combustion chamber compression: U.S. Pat. Nos. 2,419,450, 2,154,505, 3,964,452, 1,022,390, 1,817,747, and 1,559,710. These patents work under the theory that a certain combustible fuel has a compression at which it best performs when ignited. However, the overall performance of the engine can vary according to other engine performance factors, such as manifold vacuum, revolutions per minute, load, or the like, which are not measurable by these patents. Moreover, the cited patents adjust the pressure within each cylinder separately, thereby limiting the response to separate cylinder adjustments rather than overall engine performance. In addition, none of the patents use positive acting cams for adjusting the compression within the power cylinder, but rather use atmospheric pressure from the main combustion chamber or manual means for adjusting the compression piston.